Why Leadership Is Not For Everyone

Here's what companies believe about leadership:

• If we increase the leadership capacity of our people, we can make them better performers.
• If we offer them leadership training, they will do a better job.
• If we make leadership a priority, our people can become better self-directed.
• If we bring in leadership experts, we can grow our talent better.

But then most organizational training only ever gets an employee to a level of "competence" not excellence. Excellence is what separates mediocre organizations from excellent organizations. Building leadership WITHOUT building excellence means you will continually be training in leadership (year after year) - and your people won't understand why. You're trying to build a house on a shaky foundation.

In order to find your performance average, you take all of the numbers (best and worst) into account. There is a reason that poor performers perform poorly and it has nothing to do with their leadership capacity. Training poor performers to be leaders doesn't improve their performance - in fact, it may inhibit it. When you tell a poor performer that he is being offered leadership training, what message does that send? Keep on performing poorly?

Not everyone is meant to lead and not everyone is meant to enroll in leadership development. Without followers, there are no leaders. Some are just meant to follow. Those who don't display excellence in their efforts should NOT be considered for leadership training. BIG mistake.

Strive for excellence first. Find those who naturally offer excellence in their work, their relationships and their quality of life. Then, offer those people the chance to be come better leaders.

Stop thinking leadership is just another course like Time Management that can solve the problems of your organization. It can't. Trying to turn an average worker-bee into a leader is a waste of organizational resources and a threat to the average worker who is probably happy with just being an average worker.

First, make your organization excellent. Then start looking for the natural leaders who helped you get there. Train only those people.
--  
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com  

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™ 
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity

Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email  
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns  
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Everyday Should Be Friday

Everyday should be Friday - Filter-Free Friday. But too many want to play it safe. Too many want to be invisible. Too many don't want to offend. Too many are afraid of not being liked anymore.

Being liked is what those with a poor self-image worry about. If you need to be liked then you are giving up the need to be respected.

People respect people who don't lie - people who tell the truth. And Filter-Free Fridays are the days to tell the truth - in a non-hurtful way.

Today is the day you speak the truth. If the service was not "fine" then don't say it was. If the meal was not "fine" then tell the truth. If a co-worker needs a breath mint, then say so - privately.

Filter-Free Friday is not for embarrassing others. It is a day to tell people the truth - in an effort to make them better.

So, what needs saying today?

-- Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™ Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™ Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Foreign Languages In Later Years

If you were exposed to a second language from birth and spoke it every day of your childhood, you would be a fluent speaker of that second language by adulthood.

The same could be said of exposure to computers: if you were exposed to them from early childhood and used them every day, you would be considered quite fluent in computers by adulthood.

That is exactly the average Generation Y: exposed to technology, computers and smart phones their whole lives. So they would expect that penchant for technology to continue into their work. However, here's where they become dismayed and disillusioned: if their ability with computers and technology becomes limited by computer illiterate Baby Boomers who are still confounded by email.

You see while computers and technology were a part of the average Generation Y childhood, Baby Boomers have only been exposed to it all in the last 20 years or so. Think of how difficult it is to learn a new language at fifty-five years old. It's not as easy as when you are a child. Neither is riding the technology curve.

Boomers have a great sense of work ethic. Gen Y have a great sense of technology (and how to get the work done quicker - much quicker). Gen X has a great sense of changing the rules and doing away with traditions.

Oh, and Gen X and Y, don't give the old-timers a hard time about their computer illiteracy. Don't even give them a break. Give them a hand - in learning how to come up to speed on technology. You've all got something to teach each other. Now all you have to do is find some sort of common ground way of communicating. Good luck with that.

--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Yes, We Can Do That

It happened this week in Whitehorse, Yukon but it could have happened anywhere. I walked into a diner (that's what the sign on the door read) at 11:25 am. Besides the one guy in a chef's jacket, I was the only person in the restaurant.

"Are you still serving breakfast?" I asked.

"No. We stopped serving breakfast at 11," he replied while emphatically concentrating on the "11."

We turned and headed for the door which left him plenty of time to offer to serve a customer who wanted food - food they just stopped serving 25 minutes before. But he said nothing. It was as though enforcing the 11 AM food-rule was more important than putting a paying customer in a seat in his otherwise empty (non-revenue generating) restaurant.

In fact, I could have ordered a toasted egg salad sandwich with bacon and an order of fries (which is eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast) to prove a point but I believe that "negative cash-flow" is a lesson that trumps dumb food rules.

We walked a block up the street to another restaurant which, in the window, showed a sign for a 7 AM to 11 AM breakfast special.

Inside, I asked the lone server, a sixty'ish, small woman if they would still serve breakfast?

"Just the basics," she offered unapologetically. "Eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast. So what'll you have?"

"Eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast will do just fine," I answered while taking my seat in this much busier restaurant.

If you are only prepared to serve your customers in a certain way, between certain hours and only on certain days, you are certain to find a certain attrition in your business - certainly.

Restaurants that restrict the hours of certain food groups, car dealers that will sell you a car up until 9PM but only be available to fix it until 5PM or hotels that offer you a noon check-out but shout to co-workers down the hall and run a vacuum outside your door at 8AM are examples of making it tough for customers to have an excellent experience.

Excellence is simply saying "yes we can do that" when you already do it and put away the inflexible rules that make you look dumb.
--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

T.G.I.Filter-Free Friday

Don't waste another Friday keeping the truth to yourself. Today is the day that filters come off and you speak your mind, offer your opinion and help others move toward excellence - in a non-hurtful way.

• Today is the day you speak up when that guy in the next cubicle uses his speaker-phone to have conversations instead of using a handset.
• Today is the day when you lean over to the next table in the restaurant and ask the person on the cell phone to take their call outside if they are going to speak so loudly.
• Today is the day when you ask people who are freely dropping the f-bomb to politely tone down their language.
• Today is the day when you politely re-focus a clerk's attention back onto serving you instead of having side-conversations with their co-workers.
• Today is the day when you make the person you are conversing with (either in-person or on the phone) the most important person in your life at that moment.

Today is Filter-Free Friday, a day when you remove the filters that stop you from expressing what is on your mind - in a non-hurtful way. Use this day to its full advantage. You will soon discover the freedom you feel at no longer swallowing your comments. You will no longer feel frustrated that people just don't "get it." Your life will begin to change when you discover how empowering it is to say that one thing you've been thinking but have held back so as not to create a disturbance. You will find yourself focusing on excellence - especially in yourself.

Excellence does not come as a result of swallowing your feelings, being afraid to express your truth or by being afraid of the insensitive actions of others. Excellence comes when you fight through your discomfort and take a small risk.

Speak up today. If you can think it, you can say it - in a non-hurtful way.
--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Encouraging Your "Grasshoppers"

"If you can snatch  the pebble from my hand, it will be time for you to go Grasshopper." (1970's TV Series Kung Fu)

At some point, if the teacher is a good one, the student will surpass the teacher's ability. At that point, it will be time for the student to find a new teacher because the student has achieved Excellence.

So what is the excuse of your organization? How come you don't have a continuous parade of students (employees) who are surpassing the abilities of their teachers (managers)?

The modern-day manager is supposed to be more than a policeman who passes out memos and enforces the rules. The modern-day manager is supposed to be a coach, teacher, motivational speaker, family therapist, conflict diffuser, ally, inspirational mentor and thoughtful friend. Didn't you get the memo on this?

If you're a manager, have you read a book in the last 90 days that will help you be better at any of it? Look, as a manager, you need to lead by example. If you won't do the work to improve, then don't complain when your staff won't do the work either. And, don't be surprised when their ability surpasses yours. You're standing still while they continue to grow every day on the job - regardless of whether you hold them back or not.

Here's the thing though: the moment the student surpasses the ability of the teacher, the student achieves Excellence. That means that the teacher, by comparison, is mediocre - until they learn something new.

C'mon managers, encourage your Grasshoppers. Force them to be better than you - more excellent than you. You will be doing an excellent thing for your organization.
--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Numbers Don't Tell The Whole Story

It would easy to run a business or any organization by concentrating simply on the numbers because the numbers don't lie, do they? The numbers tell you how you how you are doing. If you have numbers, you don't really need charismatic leaders, encouraging managers or highly-motivated staffers do you? No, if it were all just based on numbers, you could have personality-deficient drones running your place of work. (Wait a sec - isn't that what's already happening?)

You see, focusing only on the numbers is what sinks most organizations into mediocrity because it's the things outside of the numbers that dictate how the numbers come to be in the first place. Let me explain:

• 54% of customers choose to do business with an organization based on Attitude factors: ease of service, approachability, friendliness, after-sale service, return policies, etc. 
• Over half of your customers choose you for something other than product knowledge.  
• Any customer who really needs product knowledge can probably find it on YouTube. 
• It's the Attitude Factors that separate one organization from another.

Do you have a favorite coffee shop? How about a favorite restaurant, clothing store, hair stylist, etc? What makes these places your favorites - product knowledge? Or is it because of how you are treated when you get there?

Good managers do more than judge team performance by just the numbers in a report. They tune into the attitudes, behaviors and factors that you don't see - the factors that move the organization from mediocre performer (found in the numbers) to an excellent performer (the reason why people call it their favorite).

Excellence is an Attitude. An excellent manager will encourage their excellent employees to bring their excellent personalities to work. Mediocre managers, however, will settle for any warm body in a job. Any manager who settles for a mediocre employee is a mediocre manager running the mediocre organization into a permanent state of mediocrity.

For some managers, excellence seems like too much work - but usually just for those who don't demand it of themselves. Try to discover that by simply reading a numbers report.
--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Why Aren't You Being Excellent?

You have a choice. You can show up at work and be mediocre or you can choose to be excellent.

Knowing that you have that choice, why would you choose something other than excellent?

• Because your boss won't let you.
• Because you don't get paid enough.
• Because you've only been trained to be competent - not excellent.
• Because this is a dead-end job and what's the point.
• Because management doesn't acknowledge you when you are excellent.
• Because it's easier being ordinary.
• Because you don't want to stand out and be noticed.
• Because you're lazy and being excellent means more effort.
• Because you just don't care.
• Because it's not your department.
• Because you haven't been trained to be excellent.
• Because ... well, you get the picture.

Being excellent is not something anyone can do to you and it's not something that is chosen for you. Excellence is not something your boss teaches you. Excellence is not something that you can be forced to do against your will. Excellence is an Attitude you choose to work with.

As a customer, I enjoy it when a staff member makes their manager look bad by being excellent. I know it embarrasses the other staffers and the manager when one person takes the initiative to be excellent. After all, there's no effort required in being ordinary. I think employees should embarrass their bosses more often this way.

After all, why is it the manager's responsibility to decide when it is time for you to be excellent? Maybe it's time for your manager to become excellent but maybe the only way they'll ever get there is if they are forced to do it - because they were embarrassed by one of their staff.

I've never seen a manager fire an employee for being excellent - at least none that won the ensuing lawsuit.

Go ahead. Be excellent. I dare you.  Because here's the thing: after a while of doing it, excellence becomes the new ordinary for you. Then you are playing in a class all by yourself.
--
Kevin Burns - Excellence Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Finding Your Excellence In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel

Good People Doing Good Work

Good people want to do good work for good wages so that they can have a good life. And managers are responsible for ensuring that these good people know what is expected of them.

Expectations need to be clear. When good people attain those expectations, it's up to management to set the bar just a smidge higher. Once the new expectation has been met, set a new standard.

The problem though is that managers become too busy putting out fires, settling petty disagreements and attending too many meetings to be able to check in regularly, to recognize achievement when it happens (not just once a year) and to make sure that the work they give to good people is challenging enough to engage but not too challenging causing disengagement.

That means a manager needs to manage - every day. Managers need to set their people up to excel - not just be competent.

An Attitude of Excellence is about giving your best, doing your best and being your best. Performance expectations need to be conducted regularly - not just once a year - unless you only open your doors once a year.

The market can change plenty in a year. Are you keeping up?

--
Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Speaking Web Site http://www.kevburns.com

Creator of Filter-Free Fridays™
Creator of the 90-Day System To A Greatness Culture™

Coming Soon Kevin's 8th Book - "Your Attitude Sucks - Creating An Oasis of Greatness In A Wasteland of Mediocrity
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel